August 2017

Bing’s new System Quality Policy and labels

It’s been a busy month for SEM marketing. It started with a number of changes to Bing Ads, including the company’s new System Quality Policy which aims at clearing out poorly performing keywords.

It will achieve this by removing keywords and ads that haven’t performed over a period of time and limiting the number of keywords that can be uploaded – and the use of keywords in weapons, pharmaceuticals, gambling, adult and trademark categories – for certain users. The company has said that they expect it to have little impact on high-performing campaigns.

Meanwhile, Bing also announced the addition of AdWords-style labels that can be applied at campaign, ad group, ad and keyword levels to make it easier to manage and tag advertisements. The functionality rolled out to users throughout the month and allowed them to add up to 50 labels per account.

Google updates AdWords mobile extensions and Google Shopping

Google announced major upgrades to AdWords mobile extensions that aim to make mobile sitelinks more interactive. The upgrade also gives callouts and structured snippets more space on the results page, ultimately improving user experience for users while helping advertisers to reach them.

The importance of call tracking

If you’re using search engine advertising to drive calls to your business then you need to track those calls. You do it for your ads and for your website, so why not for incoming phone calls? Stephanie White, an account manager at Hanapin Marketing, shared her thoughts on why call tracking is so important – as well as how to get started.

The robot uprising has begun

Well, maybe it’s not that extreme, but they’re certainly taking over from us when it comes to bidding on ad space. Bryan Gaynor took a look at the evolution of the industry and explained why “the evidence is pointing us in this direction of the future being machine learning and automation and forcing the industry to focus on the audience strategy more and more.”

Google releases details of its new beta Search Console reports

Google has confirmed that it’s experimenting with a beta of the new Google Search Console, revealing a sneak peek of two of the new features: an index coverage report and an AMP fixing flow report. The index coverage report highlights indexing issues and explains why pages were unable to be indexed, while the AMP fixing flow report shows issues that impact the ability of sites to show your AMP content in search. You can also verify your fix after you implement it to prompt Google to recrawl the pages.

Google releases details of its new beta Search Console reports

You can now save images, itineraries, places and web pages while using Google on a mobile device. Simply click the save button under the new hamburger icon on the left side of the homepage when you’re using Google on your mobile device or take a look below to see a screenshot of the new menu in action.

New guidelines for Google’s quality raters

Google has updated its quality raters guidelines with some small tweaks around non-English language pages and how quality raters should handle search results that return conspiracy theories. Google’s quality raters don’t have a direct influence on search engine rankings, but their feedback is gathered and used by the search engine company to improve future algorithms. You can view the full list of tweaks right here.

Updated voice search supports 30 new languages and emojis

Google has added support for 30 new languages to its voice search, including popular African languages Swahili and Amharic. 119 languages are now supported by speech recognition, and American users can now search for emojis using voice typing. Daan Van Esch, Google’s technical program manager for speech recognition, said, “You can now say something like ‘winky face emoji’ to express yourself.”

Google emails warnings to webmasters about insecure form pages

Site owners who had forms on web pages using HTTP received email notifications from Google Search Console to let them know that these pages will be marked as not secure as of Chrome 62, which is due for release in October 2017. Google had already warned that the change was coming, and the email also included directions on how to migrate to HTTPS to correct the issue.

Locadium makes it easier to monitor GMB listings changes

The new tool from LocalSEOGuide tracks any changes to local listings on Google My Business and sends alerts whenever there’s any change to a company’s listing in any of its data fields. Pricing for the tool varies, but it starts at just $5 per month – which is a worthwhile investment if you rely on local search for footfall.

As if that wasn’t enough, the social networking site also introduced a version of its Dynamic Ads product for realtors that enables them to retarget people who browse listings on their site by serving up adverts on Facebook. The new dynamic format also includes information such as the number of bedrooms and bathrooms and whether it’s for sale or to rent.

LinkedIn boosts its partner program

LinkedIn has launched API integrations with 19 new partners which aim to make it easier for them to track and manage their LinkedIn campaigns. Integration partners include Bizible, DashThis, Datorama, Hootsuite, Nugit, SocialBakers and Falcon.io. You can find out more over here.

Ikea, Nandos and more pick up press coverage

Branded3 shared a fantastic piece listing some of their top campaigns in August which included Nandos offering free chicken to A-level students on results day, Heinz bringing food porn to life in an experiential campaign and photographer Sophie Mayannes documenting people’s scars and the stories behind them.

Best of all, it was revealed that the HBO wardrobe department uses Ikea rugs to create capes for Game of Thrones actors. As a response, Ikea shared a post detailing how to turn one of their $79 SKOLD rugs into a Westeros-ready outfit.

Best practices for building an on-demand content strategy

Two-thirds of buyers complete their decision-making before they contact a sales rep. To help you to deal with this new reality, Mark Bornstein, VP of content marketing at ON24, hosted a webinar that focussed on developing an effective on-demand content strategy. The good news is that the webinar is still available on demand and you can sign up to watch it here.

Digital Marketing Tips and Strategies for SMBs

When: Tuesday, October 17, 2017

About: Learn how to fill your business with ideal clients and find a faster path to more money with content marketing.

Established in 2002, we're a specialist digital agency with a simple formula: seasoned experts on every account and a commitment to delivering on our promises. We’ve stuck with the formula for more than 15 years – because it works!